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Shared folder with Google Drive

With Google Drive you can create your shared folder for Multimedia-English easily in a few steps. Then you can share the files you want with your students. Here is how to.

First you need to create a Google account. If you have Gmail, then you have a Google account, if you don't, you can create one by going to https://drive.google.com/ and clicking on the red button you'll find in the top-right corner. Once you log in to your Google account you'll find a black toolbar with Google's menu. Click on DRIVE (1) and you'll see a window like this one:

Click on the orange button that says CREATE (2) and then choose FOLDER from the drop-down menu, give it a name (in this example we called it EOI) and now your folder has been created (3)


Now right-click on that folder (1) to get a context menu as the one you can see on the this picture:

Go to the option SHARE (2) and then go to the new option SHARE... (3) and click there.


A little window will open looking like this:

As you can see, the default option for privacy is "Private - Only the people listed below can access". We need to change that so click on the link CHANGE... (1)


A new window opens with the sharing settings: 

In the visibility options mark "Anyone with the link". In the access mode (2) make sure the chosen option is "Can view" (you can change this to "Can edit" if you want your students to be able to edit all the doc files inside the folder). And now click on the green button SAVE (3) to save your settings and go back to the previous window.


Voilá, your folder is ready to share, the only thing left is to get the link for sharing. Click on the "Link to share" box (1) and copy it to your clipboard (right-click and choose "copy" or press < Ctrl >+C in your computer keyboard if you're using Windows). Click on the DONE button (2) to save the changes.


Now the folder you created will be marked with a SHARED label (1) to show that everything was all right.


Come to your user account in Multimedia-English, go to EDIT MY INFORMATION and go to your Virtual Classroom box. You must paste the sharing link inside the SHARED FOLDER box (right-click on the box and choose PASTE or press the keys < Ctrl > +V in your keyboard). Then press the blue button VALIDATE LINKS and the link to your shared folder will appear in the Virtual Room of all your students.

Now you can go to Google Drive again and create or upload content into your shared folder. You can also create subfolders to classify your files, for example creating one folder for every class group or level. Now, when your students click on the SHARED FOLDER in their Virtual Classroom they will open a window like this:

They can open folders and also open or download the files to their computer.


 

HOW TO PUT CONTENT INTO YOUR SHARED FOLDER

To insert content into your shared folder Google offers three possibilities:

  • You can create documents online from Google Drive's website (you do the same as you did for creating a folder but this time choose a doc or another kind of file)
  • You can upload a document from your computer (next to the CREATE button you will find another button for uploading from your computer into your Google Drive)
  • You can install Google Drive for PC in your computer. Let's see this insteresting option in more detail:

CREATING A DRAG-AND-DROP FOLDER IN YOUR COMPUTER

A very easy way to share all kinds of documents with your students through the shared folder you just created is by installing Google Drive for PC. Enter your Google Drive ( https://drive.google.com/ ) and you'll find a blue button reading "Download Google Drive for PC". Download the programme, install it in your computer and you will find a new folder on your desktop. It looks like a normal shortcut folder by the name "GoogleDrive". That is a synchronized folder. You can use it like any other folder in your computer, putting files inside it, taking them out or deleting them. The big difference is that everything you do inside this folder will automatically sync with your online Google Drive shared folder, so if you put a new doc into your desktop folder, in a few moments that doc will be uploaded to your Google Drive folder and your students will be able to see it when they open your shared folder from their Multimedia-English Virtual Classroom. You can see all this explained on a video by  clicking here.

If you don't like Google for whatever reason, you can do the same using DropBox ( https://www.dropbox.com/ ), just as good but more simple to use, and some say even more reliable. The only big shot in favour of Google is that with Google Drive you get 5 Gb storage space free, while DropBox only offers 2, but if you are only going to share docs and pix, 2 Gb should be more than enough.

 

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© Angel Castaño 2008 Salamanca / Poole - free videos to learn real English online || InfoPrivacyTerms of useContactAbout
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